What You Need to Make a Viral Video

The steady rise of YouTube – and the rise in advertising revenues that has gone along with it – has seen a decorated history of viral videos, from primitive and spontaneous ‘Charlie Bit my Finger’hilarity to the more-developed meme-based videos released today. Whether you’re doing it for fame, glory, the challenge, or the income, making a viral video is something literally anyone can do. If you’ve got something to show the internet that you’d like to go viral, read through these five important steps towards realizing that goal.

Think of a Good Name and Caption

Viral videos uniformly give just enough away in their titles and descriptions to make people click on them. On tactic could be to include a series of hashtags and emojis, or, if your video consists of a cute animal, you should likewise make that abundantly clear in the title, as it’s bound to be popular. Everyone who’s scrolling through their Facebook news feed will stop for a minute to watch something cute, funny, silly or interesting – you just need to provide the hook to get them to stop scrolling.

Keep it Snappy

Rule number one in viral video editing is to make everything snappy, from beginning to end. You’d be amazed how quickly YouTube watchers click off a video if they feel the pace and rhythm are not for them – which means slow and disjointed. If you’re narrating or videoing yourself, it’s crucially important to speak fast, edit short videos together, and be as engaging as possible so that people remain on your video.

Make a Cool Intro

A video that you’re hoping to make viral ought to have an intro that’s professional, well-designed and to the point. It’ll quickly introduce the contents of the video, giving viewers another reason to keep watching which, if they like the video, will end in shares and ‘favorites’. Use Adobe’s free intro maker to make your video stand out from the crowd.

Use Overlaying Techniques

There’s a wealth of software out there that will lend something more to your viral video by building on top of whatever footage you’re using. From putting cartoon sunglasses over a misbehaving cat to having a box inset in the video showing images of what you’re talking about, think of all the methods you can use this feature for to really make your video something desirable to click on and remain on.

Do Some Subtle Marketing

Once the video’s out there, there are some subtle things you can do to ensure it reaches as wide an audience as possible. Paying a little money to promote your video on social media will rapidly increase your click-per-hour, while posting it on relevant social media pages and internet forums will certainly garner more hits. Think wisely about your strategy once the video is complete, and you could soon be sitting back and watching the views roll in.

Creating a viral video is something that nearly everyone thinks they could do and could be possible with the right formula. If you’d like to join their hallowed ranks, make sure to follow these five steps and you could be well on your way to owning a popular YouTube sensation.